About Lesley A.
Lesley A. Wallerstein brings a background in life science and formal training in law and education to her intellectual property work. She combines laboratory-level training with courtroom and regulatory skills. The result is a practical approach to technical patent matters that treats science and law as equal parts of the problem.
She earned a Bachelor of Science in Life Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, completing that degree in 1990. She went on to receive a Juris Doctor from Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, in 1993. Later, she returned to the classroom as a student herself and completed a Master of Arts in Teaching in Secondary Science Education at Boston University in 1999.
Wallerstein is admitted to practice in Illinois and is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Early in her legal career she worked on matters that required translating complex experimental systems into clear legal claims. That work shaped how she approaches patent drafting and prosecution today.
Her practice has centered on patent work for technologies rooted in the life sciences. She prepares and prosecutes patent applications, drafts prior-art and patentability analyses, and advises on portfolio strategy. She often works with inventors and in-house teams to refine claim language so that it aligns with both laboratory realities and statutory requirements. Colleagues say she prefers to break technical problems down into their component parts and then build claim sets that reflect those parts in plain, defensible terms.
Wallerstein maintains professional memberships and participates in organizations relevant to intellectual property and science. She works from an office in the Merchandise Mart / River North area, where she meets with clients ranging from startup founders to established research groups. Her background in secondary science education also informs the way she explains complex legal and technical issues to non-specialists.
Clients and contacts have noted her steady, methodical approach to patent prosecution and counseling. She continues to focus her practice on patent preparation and prosecution for life-science and biotechnology technologies, advising clients on how to protect inventive work through the patent system.
